Bringing Furniture to Turkey: Customs Rules Every Alanya Buyer Should Know

When you buy a property in Alanya, one practical question arrives almost immediately: what do you do about furniture? Should you ship your sofa, beds and kitchen appliances from home, or simply furnish the apartment once you have the keys? The honest answer depends entirely on which kind of buyer you are. Unless you are permanently relocating to Turkey, it is usually cheaper and far less stressful to buy locally. Here is when shipping makes sense, when it does not, and the customs rules that decide the difference. Two scenarios, two completely different answers Everything turns on one distinction. Are you permanently moving your life to Turkey, or are you buying a holiday home while keeping your main residence abroad? A permanent relocation can unlock a genuine customs benefit: the residence-transfer exemption that lets you import your used household goods duty-free. A holiday-home purchase unlocks nothing of the sort. Second-home furniture shipments are treated like any other commercial import and taxed accordingly. Getting this distinction right before you book a container saves thousands. The residence-transfer exemption (for permanent movers) Turkish Customs Law No. 4458 (Gümrük Kanunu), Article 167(5)(b), grants an exemption known as ev eşyası muafiyeti — the household-goods exemption. It exists so that people genuinely moving their habitual residence to Turkey are not taxed on the belongings they already own. The conditions are strict: Prior residence abroad: You must have lived outside the Turkish Customs Territory continuously for at least 24 months before transferring your residence. Short stays in Turkey of under six months within any one-year period do not break that continuity, so occasional holidays here beforehand are fine. Goods must be used, not new: Every item must have been personally owned and in active use for at least six months before shipment. Customs rejects brand-new or unused items under the exemption. One-time, family-unit entitlement: It is a once-per-person benefit. Spouses and children under 18 count as a single family unit; partners cannot each claim separately. What is exempt — and what is not Covered: used furniture, white goods and appliances (beyaz eşya), clothing, personal electronics in household quantities, cookware, bedding and ordinary personal effects. Not covered: motor vehicles (a car needs a separate temporary Blue Card scheme, not this exemption), alcohol, tobacco, any new or unused goods, and commercial quantities of anything. Items bought for trade or profession are excluded too. The process if you qualify You declare the goods for free circulation at your port of entry. You will need your passport with entry stamps, a Turkish tax number (vergi numarası — obtain it before the goods arrive), a detailed itemized inventory in Turkish, proof of your 24 months abroad (utility bills, rental contracts, work permits), and either your residence permit (ikamet) or your tapu title deed as proof of a Turkish address. Foreign documents need sworn Turkish translation. The timeline matters most. Goods must be declared within six months of your passport entry stamp (they may also arrive up to two months before you do). Miss the window and the exemption is gone — the whole shipment is reassessed at full duty. Two packing traps cost people their exemption every year. First, never pack used appliances in their original manufacturer boxes — customs treats a boxed appliance as new and charges full duty regardless of real use. Remove the original packaging so the goods clearly read as used. Second, if you mix genuinely new items into a container of used goods, separate and label them; new items are assessed at full rates and can trigger inspection of the entire shipment. Holiday-home buyers: no exemption at all If Alanya is your second home and you remain resident abroad, none of the above applies to you. The exemption is reserved strictly for primary-residence transfers. A furniture shipment for a holiday apartment is taxed as a standard import: Customs duty on furniture (HS Chapter 94): roughly 5–18% depending on material and type. VAT of 20% on the CIF value (cost + insurance + freight). Special Consumption Tax (ÖTV) of 6.7% on white goods such as fridges and washing machines. Stacked together, that is an effective uplift of roughly 27–45% before you even pay for shipping. On a container of furniture, the tax bill alone can rival the cost of furnishing from scratch. The honest calculation: ship a sofa, or buy in Alanya? Run the numbers. A full container from the EU or UK on the Mediterranean route costs roughly EUR 2,000–4,000, plus Turkish customs clearance of around EUR 300–600. If you do not qualify for the exemption, add 27–45% duty and VAT on the declared value of everything inside. Now compare local prices. Alanya has a deep, competitive furniture market: İstikbal, Bellona, Tepe Home, Alfemo, Casa Mobilya and Zebrano for furniture, plus Koçtaş and Tekzen for budget and DIY. Turkish furniture is genuinely cost-competitive — a dining set that costs around 800 dollars in Northern Europe is often near 450 dollars here. For the price of shipping and clearing one container, you can frequently furnish an entire two-bedroom apartment locally, with a warranty, local delivery and no customs paperwork. There is also a shortcut many buyers overlook: a large share of Alanya new-builds aimed at foreign buyers are sold fully furnished (eşyalı) as standard. If that is your development, the import question disappears entirely. The recommendation For permanent relocators with a household of belongings already in daily use, the exemption is real and worth claiming — plan the paperwork, mind the six-month window, and pack correctly. For everyone buying a holiday home or second residence, the math is rarely close: buy locally. Reserve shipping for the things money cannot replace — heirlooms, art, sentimental pieces — and let Alanya's furniture market handle the rest. If you are still weighing the move itself, it is worth understanding the wider cost picture and the residency rules that come with owning here before you commit to a container.